True Love's Power
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: Secrets are revealed when a face from one of their boyfriend's pasts puts the sisters under a spell that could claim them forever. How can Leo and Cole find their loves when they can not track them? OMCWerePrue CPi LPh  Latest BrendanPrue Story!
1. Chapter 1

Title: "True Love's Power"  
Author: Pirate Turner  
Rating: R for nudity  
Summary: Secrets are revealed when a face from one of their boyfriend's pasts puts the sisters under a spell that could claim them forever if their loves do not find them. How can Leo and Cole find their loved ones when they can not track them and have only twenty-four hours to save their lives?  
Warnings: Het, Original Character, Alternate Universe, Unconventional Pairings  
Word Count: 11,931  
Challenge: Cathie's Ficcers Unite Charmed challenge for 7-8-10 to have one of the sisters put under a spell that lasts twenty four hours  
Date Written: 9 July, 2010  
Timeline: Takes place after the author's "A Blessing or a Curse?", "The Day After", "Howling From A Distance", "Unsaveable", and "Howling Hopes For The Future".  
Disclaimer: Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and Patty Halliwell, Cole Turner, Leo Wyatt, Kit, Andy Trudeau, The Power of Three, The Charmed Ones, White Lighter, and Charmed are & TM Spelling Entertainment and any other respective owners, none of whom are the author, and are used without permission. Brendan Richards, Doctor Ola LaBelle, and Giselle are & TM Pirate Turner and may not be used without permission. Snow White and her Dwarves and Prince are & TM her rightful owners, none of whom are or are connected to the author, and is used without permission. Everything else is & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

**Chapter One**

"Legend speaks of a girl called Snow White.  
Her goodness knew no ends,  
But when she fled, her heart on the mends,  
She failed to observe her stepmother's might.

She fell to one bite of an apple.  
Life drained from her cheeks, once so dapple.  
The Dwarves feared she had surely breathed her last  
Until came a Prince, his love vast.

He was a true hero,  
His love, strength, and valor a million pass zero.  
Their love was as much legend as they.  
Such love can still be found, fools say.

Yet, in truth, men are beasts, intent on making us lay  
Until our hearts and souls they slay.  
But never fear, sisters dear, for I've a way  
To protect you all from such torment with slumber's sway.

Pain and sorrow lose their hold  
When to sleep's hand we fold.  
Know no fears, sorrow, or madness.  
Let peaceful sleep fill your hearts forever with gladness!"

"Lousy poetry!" Phoebe retorted.

Piper wrinkled her nose in disgust. The other Witch was an extremely poor rhymer, but yet magic hung heavy in the air. They had bested both easier and far more horrible foes, but Piper had learned long ago to never disregard one, especially if they sounded like a raving lunatic as this one did.

She had come from the forest where the three sisters had been enjoying a private picnic in hopes of reconnecting both with each other and Mother Nature and had been chanting and weaving her body through the air in some primal dance ever since she'd appeared. They'd each called to her, but she had not deigned to openly answer them a single time. Now, at last, her eyes focused on them, and Piper felt something deep within her go instantly icy cold at the look of clarity, danger, determination, and insanity in the Witch's blue orbs. "Prue?" she called.

Phoebe made a rude sound, disregarding the woman. "Look, lady, we can't help it if you had a nasty breakup! We've all been through them!" The blonde Witch shot the youngest Halliwell a fierce glare, and she added more slowly as she shivered, "Some of us more than most."

"Get behind me!" Prue commanded, throwing out her arms in a feign attempt to shield her sisters from their enemy's power.

The blonde's lips curled as she pulled a small, cloth purse out of her bodice. She pulled gently upon its golden drawstrings, and it opened readily. Her long, slender fingers dipped into the red velvet bag and withdrew a substance that looked like golden, glittering dust. Her smile finally became full, but still it did little to warm her cold face. "So Mote It Be!" she completed her spell, blowing her magic dust at the Charmed Ones.

Phoebe shrieked and dodged behind Prue. "I don't know what that stuff is, but I don't want it on me!"

"Don't let it touch you!" Prue demanded.

"No problem," Piper assured, throwing up her hands. She frowned and tried again when nothing happened.

The sisters' eyes grew wide with worry as the dust kept coming. Prue used her eyes first and then her hands to try to deflect it with her telekinesis. She was still trying when the dust rained down upon them, spattering all over their bodies and hair before they could run.

Phoebe yawned instantly. "Phoebe!" Piper cried and pulled her sister to her.

"I'm . . . sorry, . . . Piper," Phoebe moaned between huge yawns raking her body, "but I . . . just . . . can't . . . help . . . it! I'm . . . so . . . sleepy!" She stumbled and started to fall.

Piper caught her as both she and Prue yawned. "Fight it!" Prue told them, her tone of voice made sharper by her concern for her little sisters.

"I am!" Piper answered, pulling Phoebe up. She lifted her baby sister's drooping head and gasped. "Prue!"

Phoebe snored. Piper yawned. Suddenly her whole body was weighted down, and a nap sounded like the absolute best thing in all the world. The Witch laughed as Prue hit her with her telekinesis. Her laughter twinkled throughout the forest and its swaying trees.

"Piper, wake her up!" Prue called. She yawned and hit the Witch again. Her feet began to slide in the dark leaves that swirled all about them.

Piper was already calling her baby sister's name and shaking her violently while continuing struggling to fight the strong urge to sleep herself. "I'm sorry, Phoebe," she murmured sleepily and slapped her sister's face. Still Phoebe slept on.

Piper's hand softened against her sister's skin. Her fingers splayed on her cheek. She looked so peaceful and happy, more so than she'd seen her look in years. Phoebe's smile as she slumbered now made Piper remember back to when they were children and would often sleep together to protect Phoebe from the Boogeyman. Her lips twisted at the irony of the situation.

Back then, Phoebe had been convinced that he was real while Piper and Prue had both thought him to be only a figment of her imagination. Since discovering they were Witches, however, they had also learned that the Boogeyman and far worse creatures existed. Nearly every day had been fraught with danger, and they had survived more hardships than any woman had a right to have to suffer. For the longest time, Piper had clung to her private life to keep it safe from being a Witch, but she had since learned that doing so was impossible. Every aspect of her life was touched by her Witchliness, and everything, every one she loved was in danger just because of what she and her sisters were.

As she gazed down into Phoebe's happy face, Piper began to think that maybe sleeping wasn't an all together bad idea . . . Gods knew their lives had been falling apart even worse for months now as she'd striven every day and night to be with the man she loved and keep the secret of their love from her sisters. She knew they'd hate her if they ever discovered who truly possessed her heart.

The blonde Witch was wrong. Men were not all beasts, at least not in the sense that she used the term. Cole was a beast, a Demon no less, but he was also the sweetest, most loving, and most wonderful man Piper had ever had the honor of knowing. She loved him more than she'd ever loved any one else, had for a very long time, and was blessed to have his love, but still she knew her sisters would never understand. They would be as furious with her as she would have been with Phoebe if she had learned that her little sister, "the boyfriend stealer", had taken her husband when she had truly thought she'd loved him.

Now Piper was the boyfriend stealer. She was the liar, the cheater, and the woman who was far too eager to hop into bed with some one else's man, and that man belonged to her baby sister, whom she would have never chosen to hurt for anything in the world but whom she also could not help betraying and thereby, eventually, hurting. Piper had tried to deny her feelings for Cole. She had fought them with everything she had, but in the end, love had won.

Love for her soul mate had won, but her love for her sisters had failed. Now she herself was a danger to them, not because of who or what she was but because of what she was doing to them, slowly and secretly ripping their family, and the Power of Three that had saved their lives on too many occasions for any one to be able to count them all, apart. Her own selfishness would prove to be their deaths yet!

Piper couldn't bare the thought of losing Cole's or her sisters' love, but yet she knew that she would have to choose one day and feared that day would come soon. Yes, sleep was definitely way better than ever having to face their fury or rip both Cole's and her own hearts asunder by having to force her loving soul mate away. Piper nodded once, and that was all it took. She snored. Phoebe snored. Together they fell into the Fall leaves and were quickly covered.

"Piper! Phoebe!" Prue cried out as her sisters went down. She knelt beside them and shook each one in turn. "Wake up! Oh, Gods! Wake up! Please wake up! Phoebe! Piper!" Yet, no matter how hard she shook them or how loudly she called their names, neither of her sisters responded to Prue's efforts in the slightest. She raised furiously blazing green eyes to glare at the approaching Witch. "What have you done to them?"

She failed to notice, in that moment of anger, that the Witch had pulled more of her magic dust out of her pouch. She smiled at Prue, and a shiver crawled over Prue's backbone. "Simply given them peace at last, dear sister Witch," the blonde crooned in answer, "just as I soon shall for you. This world is wrought with the dangers that men have put in it, and we all deserve better. I offer a world free of their cruelties and the hardships and heartbreak they cause. You know you want peace, Prudence. Simply accept my gift, and that peace shall be yours."

Prue's mind was whirling with every breakup she'd ever experienced. She again heard every lie she'd ever been told by a male, from a little boy in Kindergarten who'd told the teacher he hadn't put glue in her hair when he had to the boyfriend she'd lost in high school to Phoebe to Andy telling her that her being a Witch did not affect their relationship or how he felt about her all the way to the latest lie she'd heard when the man to most recently win over her well-guarded heart had told her everything was fine when she knew that something was definitely wrong.

Brendan had been avoiding her for weeks. Prue was beginning to suspect that something serious was wrong but had been unable to catch him. He even managed to avoid her at the hospital where he worked. She could sooner rid this Witch of all the dust in her accursed bag than she could get Brendan to open up to her, and yet she knew that he was in danger. She had the power to help him, to save him from whatever terror was tailing him, but until he let her in, she was powerless to do anything to help him.

And then there were the howls. It was the strangest thing, but every time she went by his apartment, Prue heard howls. They were long, high-pitched, chilling, and wrecked with pain and misery, and yet every one of them called to her heart. All of the howls came from the same voice that sounded oddly familiar though Prue had been thus far unable to name the reason why. They spoke to her in a way that nothing else had. She ached to find the howler and ease him of all of his pain and suffering . . . and she'd began to wonder if perhaps that howler was Brendan.

She knew she loved him, but he had yet to trust her. Perhaps he foolishly thought that he was keeping her safe by not telling her, but couldn't he see that she loved him and would be hurt if anything ever happened to him? Men were full of lies, deceit, and heartache, she realized, her fear of losing Brendan reminding her of how consumed with pain she'd felt when she'd lost Andy. She had never grieved for any one like she had grieved for Andy except for her mother and grandmother, and yet she already knew that she loved Brendan a thousand times more than she'd ever loved Andy.

The world was full of pain, she thought, her heart aching. Every one, at one point or another, hurt her. Her mother, grandmother, and Andy had deserted her; they'd taken the coward's way out and died without telling her what she'd most needed to know: in her mother's and grandmother's cases, that she was a Witch, and in Andy's case, that he loved her still despite her being a Witch. She'd known he had from the way he'd called on her when he'd most needed help and the sparks that had flown between them with their slightest touch and every word, but he had never said the words again after she'd told him the truth of who and what she was, a truth that she had never asked for but also could not stop.

Yet in dreams, she could be anything she chose. She could be any one. She didn't have to know pain, suffering, or heartache. She could weave a lie, weave a wonderful lie of a happy life where no such horrible feelings existed. She could be happy, and she could be with any one she chose. She could make Brendan love and trust her; she could stop whatever was bothering him. She could bring back her mother and grandmother and even Andy, if she so chose, and make them live again.

In dreams, anything was possible, and reality hurt so very, very much . . . The world spun around the eldest Halliwell as she crashed to the ground. She was asleep before her head even hit the earth. Immediately the leaves swirled around the three sisters, and they covered them in shades of yellow, orange, red, and brown, protecting them from the world and any who should seek them.

The woman who the Charmed Ones had mistaken for simply a fellow Witch smiled. She spread her hands through the air and chanted as the leaves continued to dance. A rising wind whipped through the forest, and thunder rumbled in the darkening sky.

"Here doth the Charmed Ones lay.  
Let all who seek them by magic be kept at bay.  
No pain nor suffering shall touch them  
While happiness, doth in their souls, beam.  
Peace and sleep forever reign here  
Until true love comes near.  
So Mote It Be!"

She smirked. There was no such thing as true love, only lies, deceit, heartache, and misery caused by men who garnered power and strength from playing with women's hearts. She admitted that her gender was the weaker of the two for women could never stand up to their men for long and always ended up bowing down to them to win their hearts, but she would set every wrong man had ever made right. One by one, she would grant every woman across the world the peace that came in sleep until there were none left to suffer at man's hands. Then, and only then, would she reawaken them to live in a new world order, a world driven by women wherein man had no place nor power. Laughing gaily, she walked back from whence she had come and vanished.

**To Be Continued . . . **


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Cole shimmered into the Halliwell Manor's kitchen, his nose instantly rising into the air. He sniffed and frowned. He turned first to the stove, and his face fell.

"They're not here," Leo spoke softly from behind him.

Cole turned toward the White Lighter and was surprised to find him feeding the cat. Kit started eagerly devouring the food the moment it hit her bowl, and Cole's frown deepened. It wasn't like the sisters, especially not his beloved Piper, to fail to feed their baby. Prue and Phoebe might forget, but Piper always remembered, even when the world was turning into chaotic shreds around them all. "What's wrong?" he asked. Leo's face was ashen, and the look he wore troubled Cole down to the very bottom of his heart.

"I . . . I'm not sure," Leo slowly explained, carefully picking his words so as to not make the situation sound worse than perhaps it was. "I can't find them."

Cole looked quizzically at the White Lighter. Slowly he raised a single brow. "You can't find them?"

Leo nodded and forced down the ball that was forming in his throat. Piper and Prue still sometimes went off on missions without consulting him, but Phoebe had stopped doing so ever since they'd confessed their true feelings to one another. She might have to lock herself away in the bathroom in order to do it, but she always called him to let him know that they were going out, just in case things took a turn for the worse. She understood his constant need to protect them most especially out of all of his charges and did all that she could to make it easier for him to do so, unlike Piper.

He'd long ago lost track of the times that Piper had gone out without even so much as leaving a note for him, and she was always angered whenever he suggested that she should have told him where she was going. It wasn't that he wanted to "babysit" her as she'd often accused him of but simply that he couldn't protect them as well if he didn't even know where they going or what they were fighting against. Clear, important information always helped a White Lighter to perform his job better, and that was something that Piper refused to understand, let alone accept.

Leo shook his head as his thoughts whirled. Where were the sisters? What had happened to his love, Phoebe; to his wife, Piper; and to their sister, Prue? Why couldn't he find them? Why hadn't Phoebe told him something was happening? "I can't locate them," he answered. His emotions made his voice so soft that his words sounded like a hushed whisper.

Cole fought down his urge to panic and start hunting until he found the nearest evil Demon and ripped it apart. Something had his Piper! No, he told himself, it didn't necessarily have to be that. There had to be other reasons why her White Lighter husband couldn't locate her . . . "What would cause that to happen?" he asked, forcing the words to sound normal, as he stooped and stroked Kit's back.

Leo watched Cole petting Kit with interest. The Siamese cat never liked Demons, Warlocks, or anything else evil, but yet she allowed Cole's touch without a single flinch of doubt. Phoebe must have found a way to make peace between them, he thought, never once thinking that Cole might have, in a way, courted the cat.

Kit was important to Piper, and so Cole had used every opportunity to try to convince the cat to like him better. He had brought her treats of tuna, chicken, and cat treats. He had always spoken softly to her, never once raising his voice around the cat. Piper had taken to giving him bowls that she was cooking in to clean, and after he'd gotten what he could out of them, he always gave them to Kit. He smiled down at her. Evidently his plan had finally worked.

"It could be a spell," Leo said thoughtfully, desperately trying to come up with every acceptable reason he could think of that might keep him from being able to locate the sisters. "They could be in another dimension or another time . . . or . . . " His voice trailed off. He could not, and would not, - he wasn't sure which was more the case - say those awful words that he had dreaded having to say ever since he'd first fallen for Piper and Phoebe. He'd fallen for both of their charms at first, had later thought that Piper was the one he truly loved, and only discovered much, much later, when they'd almost lost Phoebe due to one of the countless Demon attacks upon the sisters, that it was the youngest Halliwell who had truly and completely won his heart.

Of course, by that time, he had already promised to marry her sister, and Leo, always a man of his word, had kept his vow. Yet there had come a time, when Phoebe had been attacked while walking home from college one afternoon, when the truth had come out. She had been dying when Leo had reached her, and she had grasped at him with what they'd both feared to be her final breaths and told him that she loved him. Leo had been working to save her, but he had been tired from another mission and his magic had not been as quick to respond as it usually was.

It was thus that he had committed the ultimate atrocity. He had told his wife's baby sister that he loved her when he was still married to her sister. Leo and Piper's marriage had been achieved through the greatest fight of their lives. The Council had finally trusted them to wed, and Leo had destroyed their trust in him and Piper's trust and love. He had thrown it all away in one quick and foolish moment when he'd admitted to his most secret, and guilty, feeling to the woman who had caused it.

Either the Council had somehow, by some miracle, been looking away at the time or They had failed to bring him up on the charges that would come from his deceit and betrayal simply because They understood that doing so might well cause the end of the Charmed Ones. Piper had already refused to keep working for them once when they had taken him from her. She'd promised to never do it again for that very reason, but yet They might still fear losing Their ultimate power against Evil.

Besides, there was no doubt in Leo's mind that if Piper ever discovered how he felt about her sister and how Phoebe also loved him in return, it would be the end of the Charmed Ones. Piper would turn away from Phoebe and himself, and Prue would follow. Although he could live without having Piper in his life, Leo knew that losing her sisters would kill Phoebe's heart and soul that were two of the biggest reasons why he loved her, and he knew he would not want to live without Phoebe's light sparkling in his world. He hung his head.

Cole closed his eyes as his hand stilled upon Kit's back. He reached out with his powers, but after a great deal of searching, he finally reopened his eyes and shook his head in remorse. "I can't find them either." He sighed. "Have you checked in P3?" he asked in desperation.

"Yes," Leo answered. He looked up, and Cole knew that he was being called. He waved at him to go ahead. "You check with your sources," he announced. "I'll check mine." He shimmered away, dread and despair inching into his soul.

Leo orbed up, praying for a miracle.

Kit looked around with a perplexed purr. She didn't know why the guys had suddenly left and wished that Cole had stayed. Leo was good for food, but Cole's touch had felt purrfectly wonderful.

* * *

Thirteen hours after the spell had began found Cole sitting in a luxurious chair in an apartment with his head buried in his hands. "We can't find them!" he sobbed to the beautiful woman who looked over him in great concern. "We've looked everywhere, Ola, checked with every one, but we can't find any trace of them! And it's been seven hours! Seven hours, and no word! That's not like Piper! You're our last hope!"

"Non, ma cherie," she spoke quietly, placing comforting hands that were as soft and white as snow upon his strong hands. "I do not believe I am."

His tear-filled eyes peered anxiously up into her lovely face. This was a woman that men had wrote sonnets about and had chased all over the globe for her beauty, but Cole knew her only for the beauty within her soul. She had been one of the few who had helped him to gain control over his Demon side, and helping beings such as he to overcome their evil natures was to what Doctor Ola LaBelle had dedicated her entire life. "You know some one?" he asked hopefully.

"Oui," she replied thoughtfully, "but we shall have to encourage him. You see, ze Charmed Ones, ze have a . . . shall we say . . . knack for falling in love with men who are of a nature more akin to zeir true selves. Zey do not want a normal man, no matter how much some of zem zink zey do. Zey want a man who can and will stand beside zem zhroughout everyzing zey must face. Zey seek a man who is more zan he appears."

"Ola," Cole ground out miserably, "I appreciate all you've done for me over the years, but I'm not in the mood for riddles!"

Ola nodded and smiled, accepting his temper and letting it slide by for the fear she understood it truly was. "Prue's new boyfriend is also a good friend of mine," she explained. "You must promise to never breathe to a soul of what I am about to tell you."

Cole nodded, his eyes meeting hers. "I promise. I vow it on my very existence."

"Including to him," she said, her French accent growing even thicker.

Cole gave her a curious look. The situation with the man must be grave indeed if he could not even mention whatever she was about to tell him to him. He chose his words carefully. His eyes never once blinked as he spoke, and in his eyes, he knew that she saw the truth of his words. "I swear to you, I promise, I vow on all that I am and all that I possess, even upon my greatest treasure, the love Piper and I share, that I will never say one word nor even think it in the presence of a known telepath."

Ola nodded her acceptance. "Oui," she approved. "Very well. Brendan is a Werewolf, Cole, and he needs our help perhaps more zan any ozer soul I have ever known . . . "

**To Be Continued . . . **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Cole listened intently to Ola for two hours and then took a walk. He debated all that he had discovered over the next few hours, mulling over the facts in his mind and weighing the dangers against the possibilities of finding his beloved Piper and her sisters. At last, he slid into the Los Angeles hospital and began to walk the floors until he found the man he was seeking. He watched as he discussed a matter with a nurse before continuing on down the hallway with the file of a new patient clutched in his hand.

Cole fell in behind him. He took a deep breath of air and wondered why he had never noticed the smell of wolf around the man before. Had he been so lost in his own problems that he had overlooked the obvious, or did Ola have a cloaking spell on the lad that helped to protect him from those who did not know his secret or, at least, those who would use his powers for evil that she had lifted for him? The younger man had certainly seen more than enough evil in his lifetime, Cole reflected and shook his head sadly.

Just before the doctor could step into another room, Cole spoke. "Brendan." His voice was soft but demanded his attention nonetheless.

Brendan swiftly whirled around, panic touching his wide, brown eyes. Cole could hear the rapid beating of his heart even from the several feet that still separated them. "Cole!" The Demon watched emotions warring in the Werewolf's eyes as he fought to maintain calm. Brendan forced a wavering smile upon his lips. "What brings you here?"

Cole cut right to the point. "The girls are in trouble."

Brendan cocked his head slightly to one side as he searched his eyes. "What kind of trouble?"

Cole let the truth shine in his dark eyes. "The kind that most people don't know about but you and I know too much about."

Fear, panic, and pain shot through Brendan's deep, brown eyes before they darkened underneath his mask. "I'm sorry. I don't know what you're talking about."

Cole backed the good doctor against the door and pinned him there with both of his arms surrounding him and his hands planted firmly beside the sides of his head. "Yes, you do," he growled softly. Fire flickered in his eyes before they turned black. "You know exactly what I'm talking about," he continued, his voice dropping to a hiss low enough that only the two of them would be able to hear him, "Werewolf."

Brendan blanched. He gulped and trembled, and Cole could tell he was aching to run. He tried to laugh the accusation off, but one meaningful glare from Cole's darkened eyes transformed Brendan's meek chuckle into a whimper. "I'm not that kind of wolf! I don't want to hurt Prue!"

Cole sighed and took a step back. "I know you don't," he told him, "no more than I want to hurt the woman I love."

"Then why come to me?" Brendan asked him. "You know I can't help."

"I know you can," Cole returned. "In fact, quite possibly, Brendan, you're the only one who can. As I said, Prue, Piper, and Phoebe are missing. I can't find them," he explained, shaking his head, "even with all of my resources. Neither can their White Lighter. We fear they've fallen under a spell or . . . worse yet . . . "

"Prue?" Brendan whimpered in alarm.

Cole nodded gravely. "It's a possibility we don't want to look at, but it's too damn possible right now."

"It can't be!" he whined.

Cole grabbed the other man's arm and led him into the next room that his senses told him was unoccupied. "You've got to pull yourself together," he warned, keeping his voice low. They had already been receiving too many curious glances. "My heart's torn apart right now, too, but I know you've had to have worked hard to convince this hospital and its staff that you're nothing but a good, hard-working doctor. You don't want to blow that now."

Brendan nodded slowly as he struggled to fight down his emotions. Prue couldn't be dead! He had forced himself to stay away from her when all he yearned to do was to be with her with such a fierce need that it tore his heart and soul asunder and was even a physical ache inside of him at times! He'd never known any one as beautiful, sweet, kind, or wonderful as his beloved Prue! Yet he'd forced himself to stay away from her to keep her safe from his nasty, heartless evilness, and now she might have met harm or even worse, death!, at some one else's hands.

He whimpered again as he fought down a howl. His hands began to itch. He felt the beast howling to life within him. "Prue!" he gasped out, his strangled, emotional voice caught somewhere between a whimper and a howl. "She can't be dead!"

Cole sighed. "I don't want to think it," he truthfully replied, "but we have to look at all the possibilities."

"No!"

"Some one could have taken them."

"No!" Coarse, brown hair began to sprout over the backs of Brendan's hands. He knew he should be fighting his wolf, but all he could think about was how his marvelous, sweet, remarkable, darling, beloved Prue might be laying dead somewhere!

"Some one could have hurt them badly . . . "

"No!"

" . . . torn them apart . . . "

"NO!"

" . . . cut their throats . . . "

"NO!" Brendan's voice was no longer a whimper or a cry. It was now a full-out roar as his body began to contort, his muscles growing, his bones shifting, and his skin rapidly being covered with fur . . .

" . . . spilled their blood . . . "

"NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!" Brendan howled, dropping to his knees and tearing at his own head as the wolf continued to gain control.

" . . . killed her! They could all be laying dead somewhere! Phoebe, my Piper, your Prue!" Aw, Hell, he hadn't meant to call Piper his out loud! Cole pushed the thought from his mind. He had to focus on the task at hand. He needed this Werewolf. He needed him to find the girls' scents so that he could rip apart whatever evil was trying to steal them out of their lives. He wondered fleetingly how furious Prue would be if she ever found out what he was doing to her man.

As the transformation completed, Cole pulled Prue's shirt out of his jacket. He'd stopped by the Manor and retrieved it from the laundry before coming on out to the hospital. Howling, the Werewolf struck out and slapped both Cole and the shirt against the wall. The blow took Cole by surprise, and he wondered if he had made the right decision as he pulled himself back to his feet.

The Werewolf glowered at the man, and Cole could still see Brendan's heartache clearly shining within the beast's yellow eyes. He had to trust him. He had found no other choice for neither Leo nor he had been able to turn up any other possibility of discovering the girls' whereabouts. The Elders had mentioned that one of Cole's ex-partners, the dreaded Giselle, was in town but had not told them anything else about what had happened with the sisters. Leo was currently checking with all the other White Lighters, but Cole had already scoured the darkest pits of Hell in search of the sisters. No, there was no other choice but trusting the heaving, feral animal in front of him.

And yet was he himself really much more than a beast? He was worse, he realized, for the Demon within him was one of the most powerful and evil beings that had ever existed. Still he loved Piper, and it didn't matter whether it was his human side or his Demon side in control of his body. Nothing lessened his love for his soul mate. If Brendan truly loved Prue, and from everything that Ola had told him, there could be no doubt that he did, it would be the same for him. Both his man and his Werewolf forms would love her endlessly, and they would stop at nothing to protect her.

"!" the Werewolf howled, throwing back his head, and Cole smiled. He had made the right choice. He leaped forward the moment the Werewolf turned his shaggy back on him, caught him, and shimmered them to the back alley of P3. They had barely arrived before the Werewolf sent Cole flying again.

This time Cole's head hit a wall. He sank down to the muddy ground and grimaced. When had it started raining? He'd been so lost in trying to find his love and her sisters that he'd not even noticed the shift in the weather until now. Thunder boomed, and lightning cut through the night sky. Winds howled, and Cole had to try not to laugh at the way they fluffed out the Werewolf's thick, brown fur. He looked like a walking, lethal furball!

Cole chuckled, but the Werewolf wasn't listening. He had one thing, one woman, on his mind, and he had no need of a shirt to follow his mate's scent. Prue Halliwell was his destined mate. Her delicious scent was embedded on his mind. It, and she, were a part of his heart and soul. No matter what came of their union, she would always be a part of him. With a long, miserable howl, he took off running into the city.

"WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE?"

Cole grimaced as he looked up at Leo. "Don't shout so loud!" he shot back at him. "My head hurts!" He touched the back of his head, felt something sticky, and brought his fingers around. One look at his hand confirmed what his senses had already told him. He was bleeding from the impact against the brick wall.

That didn't matter, he thought getting to his feet a second time in less than five minutes, nor did the angry White Lighter whose mere look alone could have fried him if he had been any lesser a Demon. Nothing mattered now except for finding Piper, holding her close to his heart, and making sure that she was all right. Well, that, and finding her sisters, Cole slightly amended his frame of thought, simply because his sweet Piper would never get over losing her sisters. "I did," he said as thunder rattled the buildings around them, "what I had to do, Leo. He'll get the job done."

"If he doesn't eat them himself first!"

Cole glowered at Leo. "He'll no more eat them than I would!" he snarled, his eyes flashing. He had grown tired of Leo's attitude a long time ago and only tolerated him so that he could stay with the family and, by so doing, his beloved Piper.

"Sometimes I wonder," Leo groused, "especially with the way you look at my wife . . . "

Cole just glared at him. Then he shimmered out, following the howls of the enamored Werewolf.

**To Be Continued . . . **


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Hours passed. Night shifted into day, although the difference could barely be told. The hunt was slowed and made more difficult and tedious by the torrent of slashing rain. Still the three men continued their movement through the city, following Brendan's nose in desperation. Each man silently prayed over and over again for the safe discovery of the woman they loved as they harbored that love secretly close to their hearts.

At last, Brendan came to a stop in the park. He fell to his knees and howled. He was exhausted. He had never run so much or so hard before in all his life. His tongue lolled out of his mouth as he panted.

Cole and Leo appeared behind the Werewolf. They looked dubiously at each other. "Do you sense anything?" Leo asked.

Cole shook his head, then looked scrutinizingly at the trees around them. He could have sworn he'd felt something move, but yet he saw nothing out of place.

Brendan started digging through the leaves. Leo looked at him with raised eyebrows. "He's lost it."

"No." Cole took a few cautious steps forward, his every sense screaming at him that something was different with this place. There was something that didn't belong, and secrets lay buried here. Something crunched beneath his booted foot. He bent, moved the leaves around, and uncovered a hand. "Leo."

Leo hurried to his side, and they dug out a body. The girl was a few years younger than Phoebe. Her hair was spiked, and she wore black makeup. Both men gave audible sighs of relief. Then Cole's eyes widened. "Duck!" he warned Leo.

Leo and Cole hit the ground just in time to avoid being hit by a body. They gazed in shock at the Werewolf who was throwing bodies around as fast as he could dig them up. "Brendan!"

The Werewolf glanced up once, then went immediately back to digging. Cole shook his head. "It's not going to do us any good. He's intent on finding Prue, and we should be digging just as madly for Piper and Phoebe."

Leo looked at him quizzically as he wondered mildly why he had named his wife first. His curious thoughts were shattered by sudden laughter. The men looked up into the face of a lovely, blonde Sorceress whose beauty was destroyed by her cold smile and the evil shining in her blue eyes. "Well, well, if it isn't my old boyfriend, Cole Turner!"

Cole ignored the questioning look Leo shot him. "I was never your boyfriend, Giselle, only your partner! I told you that too many times to count!"

"So you did," she said with a smile, "but you lied. Men always lie. You know that." She laughed. "Of course you know that. You taught me that!"

"Where's Piper?" Cole demanded, catching himself a heartbeat of a second too late. "And Phoebe and Prue?"

Giselle's smile grew. "You almost sounded convincing," she crooned. She spread her hands open, her long, sharp fingernails glimmering in the rain. "They're here somewhere," she admitted. "The only question is where. Well, that and the identity of their true love, of course. Ha! True love doesn't exist, Cole! We both know that! Yet, without it, your darling Charmed Ones will never reawaken!"

Leo's mind was whirling. He had heard of Giselle before. This was why the women were disappearing, not the Vampires that had recently moved into town and he'd had the girls checking out! He reached out with his powers and was shocked to find that there were hundreds of women, including many Witches, hidden underneath the leaves. He gasped as he sensed Phoebe. "There!" he cried, pointing to the patch of leaves that covered the Halliwell sisters.

He ran for them only to have the leaves gather together into a giant hand and snatch his feet out from under him. "LET ME GO!" he yelled.

"Silly, little White Lighter," Giselle crooned, shaking her head in mock pity. "Did you really think I'd lift the cloaking spell and allow you to sense them so that you could rescue them?" She laughed again, and all three men's spirits were chilled by that light, twinkling sound.

Brendan, still in Werewolf form, sat back on his haunches and cocked his head. He studied the Sorceress with a soft, quizzical noise that sounded like an inquisitive dog. This was the creature who had stolen his mate. This was the being who had harmed his beloved Prue! He growled, his yellow eyes glowing, and meaningfully licked his furry lips. This was the bitch he was going to make pay! With a howl that chilled the ears of all who heard it, the Werewolf launched through the air, his glistening fangs and claws flying straight at the Sorceress.

"Eep!" she cried, picking up her skirts and stepping to the side at the last minute.

Brendan flew straight into a tree. He sank down to the ground, shook his head, and struggled to recapture his bearings. Even as he was blinking his eyes and trying to clear his thoughts, the leaves raised up around him like a cage. Growling, he lashed out, but wherever his fist shot, the scattered leaves simply refused themselves before he could break entirely free of their hold.

"Cole!" Leo cried. "Do something!"

"You don't have to tell me twice," Cole growled, memories flashing through his mind. He witnessed the torturous deaths of all the men that Giselle had slain over the centuries and heard again the cries of the women whose lives he'd watched her destroy. He remembered Piper's every smile, heard her every loving word echo in his mind, and trembled again from each loving touch with which she had ever caressed his lowly hide. He ached to hold his love in his arms again and kiss her sweet lips, and still the question of what Giselle had said about true love weighed heavily upon his heart, soul, and mind.

He knew Giselle too well, almost as well as he knew his own dark side, Belthazor. He knew how her spells worked and realized that, even if he was successful in destroying her and keeping her from ever being able to harm another living being, it might still be too late to save his love and her sisters. Only the kiss of their true loves could awaken them. Piper didn't love Leo, but he loved her. All Hell was surely going to break lose when he kissed her sweet lips, lips that should only ever be kissed by Cole himself, and Piper did not stir.

Their secrets would be revealed, their love discovered and shown to all who would condemn them. Piper would lose her family. He might very well lose her and his reason for existing in this maddening and cruel world, in the process. Nothing in their lives would ever be the same. Giselle had succeeded where millions of other evil beings had failed: She had destroyed the Charmed Ones.

Cole's black eyes met Giselle's blue orbs. His lips twisted into a smile whose bitter coldness matched hers equally. "Good-bye, Giselle," he whispered as an energy ball formed in his hand.

"You have no power over my heart!"

"I never wanted your heart, bitch." He only wanted Piper's, Cole thought sadly as he flung the energy ball straight into Giselle. It burned straight through the leaves that tried to halt it, and she screamed as it exploded in her center. In truth, he had only ever wanted Piper's heart and love, and now any hope they may have ever had for being truly happy together was shattered. Their future, their hopes, their dreams . . . All but their love would soon be gone, just as soon as their reality was discovered . . .

**To Be Continued . . . **


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

With Giselle gone, Leo and Brendan were released. The sun broke free of the clouds, and the rain and winds finally stopped. The leaves fell to the ground, as dead as they always had been in truth. Leo and Brendan set immediately to digging in the leaves as Cole stood in shocked, and dreadful, silence. He watched as they unearthed body after body, Brendan tossed each unknown woman to the side as though she was naught but a piece of trash, and the other men moved on in their desperate search.

"COLE!" Leo shouted. "HELP US!"

Instead Cole stepped back into the afternoon shadows. They were doomed. He knew it. He wanted to howl and cry with all the desperation that Brendan had been letting rip the night before, but yet he knew it would do no good. Nothing would ever do any good again.

Brendan howled. Cole watched, through dark eyes filling with tears, as the Werewolf gently caressed his beloved Prue's face with his massive paw. He cocked his head and whined as he looked down at her, and Cole realized that he was as torn as he himself was.

Leo hurried over to Brendan and Prue, dropped to the ground, and dug even more frantically. "I have her!" he cried, lifting Phoebe up out of the leaves. Leo gazed down at Phoebe's lovely face as she continued to sleep peacefully, completely unaware of what was happening and what she was suffering as well as his own turmoil. He laid her gently down upon the top of the leaves and cradled her head in his lap.

He looked up to the clear, blue sky and batted back tears. She was so beautiful and innocent! His heart cried for her, and yet . . . Yet she was not his to care for so strongly, to cry for, and most of all, not to love. She was not his nor would she ever be. She belonged to another man. She might think she loved him, but Leo knew better and soon so would she. "Cole?" he called, hanging his head.

"What?" Cole asked in surprise, and then he realized what Leo was asking. He walked forward, his heartbeat sounding like a final drumming in his ears and heart. His kiss would not awaken Phoebe. They had no idea who her soul mate was. Then he felt cold and dead inside as full knowledge dawned. He didn't love Phoebe, but she loved him.

It had been Phoebe who had first believed in him, Phoebe who had worked so hard to make him want to turn good even if it had been Piper with whom he'd secretly fallen in love. Outside of Piper, Phoebe was his best friend in the whole world. She had taught him so much. She had given him her love and her trust. And because of him, she would never awaken. She would die, because he didn't love her. He couldn't love her for his heart belonged to her sister.

"Leo," Cole spoke, his voice shaking as badly as his hands as he dropped down beside the couple. He wanted to tell him it wasn't going to work, but he couldn't find the words.

"Just kiss her."

Cole looked up at Leo in surprise as he batted away more tears. He had never heard the Angel's voice sound so close to a growl before! He shook his head sadly. Leo wouldn't even look at him, and he quietly pondered what was troubling the White Lighter. Whatever it was, things were about to get a million times worse for all of them.

Cole bent his head and brushed his lips gently across Phoebe's. As he had known it would, nothing happened, but underneath Leo's watchful gaze, he forced himself to kiss her still, cold lips again. Kisses between them had been cold almost since the beginning, and yet Cole had thought he had loved her. Sitting back on his heels and pulling his head back, he shook his head. He should have known better, but he'd never felt a kind touch before Phoebe and had mistaken their bond of friendship for so much more than it could have ever been.

"What's happening?" Leo asked softly.

"Nothing," Cole quietly answered.

"I see that," Leo retorted, "but why?"

Cole hung his head, his tears brimming in his dark eyes and almost overflowing his guard. "Leo . . . I . . . I don't know how to say this . . . "

Leo watched Cole curiously, the words that Phoebe and he had exchanged so long ago circling in his mind. Phoebe had said she loved him. Leo knew he loved her. Maybe, . . . just maybe, . . . by some wrongful and twisted miracle, they were meant to be together. It would break Piper's and Cole's hearts . . . or would it? Leo paused to give contemplation to that intriguing thought.

Cole had shown more concern over Piper than Phoebe several times in the last twenty-four hours. He had even seemed reluctant to kiss his fiance. Leo had known that Piper was keeping a secret from him for a long time, and if he and Piper were not soul mates and he and Phoebe were instead, could it be possible? Could it be that the Powers had known that Piper and he were not meant to be together all along and had opposed their marriage for so long because of that knowledge rather than the sisters' mother's discretion with her White Lighter?

Could it be . . . Was it by any chance, any way imaginable, any miracle he might yet be granted to gleam, possible that Cole and Piper were meant to be together while he truly did deserve to love the woman his heart cried out for, his wife's baby sister? Might all be saved yet? "Cole," Leo asked softly, avoiding the Demon's gaze, "may I try?"

"You?" Cole asked in surprise. Leo shrugged and continued to refuse to meet his probing gaze. Cole stared at him in shock but finally granted his permission with a nod. "Okay. Sure. Why not?"

Why not indeed, if Cole loved Phoebe as he claimed? Leo wondered while Cole simultaneously pondered the thought he'd mistaken for impossible for so long that Leo might love Phoebe and might be glad, and perhaps even thankful, to know that he and Piper loved each other.

Cole watched with bated breath as Leo leaned down over Phoebe and touched his lips to hers.

**To Be Continued . . . **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Leo fought to keep from squirming as he kissed his love before her fiance. He suddenly felt her lips begin to respond to his gentle touch, and hope surged through him. He dared to touch her face and let his fingers stroke her cheeks. Her eyes fluttered open, and he felt like screaming with joy as he gazed into those beautiful, brown eyes.

Cole's heart roared in his chest. He didn't dare believe his eyes, and yet he saw the proof of the truths he would never have dared to hope for right before him! A tear finally fell down his handsome face. Leo and Phoebe were in love which meant that he and Piper were free to love each other!

Phoebe suddenly broke off her kiss with Leo to cry out, "Cole!" She had seen Cole kneeling behind Leo, witnessed his tear, and mistaken its meaning. "It isn't what it looks like!" she protested, pushing Leo away.

Leo sat back and looked at Phoebe with concern, confusion, and uncertainty passing over his face. Cole put all his doubts to an end with a gentle hand upon his shoulder. "It's okay," he told them both, grinning from ear to ear. "I really couldn't be happier for you." He took Phoebe's hand in his and then placed it in Leo's hand. "I just hope you understand that I love Piper."

Phoebe's and Leo's mouths dropped open. Phoebe continued to sit there with a look of complete befuddlement on her face, her jaw hanging wide open, as Leo shut his mouth and smiled widely. "We do," he assured Cole. "Now go wake her up." He turned to Phoebe and gently squeezed her hand. "It's okay, sweetheart," he reassured her.

"H-How c-can it be okay?" Phoebe squeaked. "What the heck is going on here?"

"We were all wrong when we thought we were in love," Leo explained with a warm, knowing smile. "We eventually fell in love with the right people. It only took us too long to realize that." He began to tell Phoebe of everything that had happened in the last twenty four hours, or at least what he and Cole had been able to piece together of it, as Cole dug into the leaves, his heart hammering, for the woman he loved.

Phoebe heard a sharp, sad whining sound and looked pass Leo to find a monster crouched before Prue. "Leo! Look out! Cole! Stop it!"

Leo grinned. Phoebe was so cute when she was disturbed for no real reason at all! He dragged her into his arms and hugged her. "It's okay," he told her. "I can't tell you who he is, but he's a friend."

Phoebe gazed up into her love's handsome face and said slowly, "Oookkkaaayyy . . . " She felt like she'd waken up in Bizarro World, but at least she had her fondest dream come true! She wrapped an arm around Leo's neck and guided his mouth down to hers in another passionate kiss.

"Piper!" Cole cried as he finally found his love. He quickly brought her to rest on top of the leaves and then just hovered for a moment, gazing down into her breath-takingly beautiful face with the most enormous smile he had ever worn. How long, he wondered, would it take her to believe their fantastic luck? This truly was a tale for the legends! No one would believe that four people could have been so messed up as they were and yet be so close to loving, and being able to love openly, the true Kings and Queens of their hearts! He was still having trouble believing this wasn't all one remarkable, but crazy, dream himself!

He let his hands run over Piper's long, silken hair which made her fit to be a storybook Queen all of its own accord; her forehead; her closed eyes; her soft cheeks; her supple, smiling lips; and down to her neck. He stopped his hand before he could roam any further for he'd never disgrace her by touching her more private areas in public. Finally, his heart still hammering and his soul screaming its joy pass the furthest galaxy, he bent down and began to kiss her. He brushed his lips gently across her hair, her forehead, each eye in turn, her nose, and finally her lips. His mouth lingered there upon hers as he drank in her beauty and reveled in the fabulous glow of their love.

Piper's eyes fluttered open, and she smiled against Cole's mouth. She opened her own mouth in greeting, and his tongue slipped into her silken web. Her tongue met his, and together they danced. Then, suddenly, a piercing howl forced both couples to break apart. Their heads whipped toward the crying Werewolf, and Piper screamed. Her hands shot up into the air, but Cole caught her hands and held them as gently as he dared while still maintaining enough firmness upon her to keep her from using her powers.

"No," he told her softly, "don't. He's just in love."

Piper and Phoebe gazed at Cole as though he'd grown a second head. "He's a Wer-Werewolf!" Piper sputtered in shock.

Cole grinned at his love. "I'm a Demon," he replied with a shrug.

"That's different!"

"How?"

"You're good!"

"So is he."

When Piper looked at Cole doubtfully, Leo backed him up. "He is. He's trying very hard to be good." He smiled sadly as he watched the Werewolf pull back his hand, grasp empty air, stare forlornly at his claws, and howl again. "He's scared of hurting her."

Cole nodded his agreement. "Trust me, Piper. I would never lie to you."

"And yet you lied to me!" Phoebe couldn't help pointing out.

"Don't start, Phoebe! You lied to me too!"

Phoebe grinned as she looked around her at Cole, Leo, and Piper. "Yeah," she admitted, "and I'm sorry, but it sure worked out great!" She grinned, then screeched as she looked back at the Werewolf. She reached out, grasped Piper's arm, and pulled her so swiftly that Piper almost fell. "Look!" she gasped. "He's changing!"

Before the sisters' startled eyes, the Werewolf's fur was swiftly vanishing. His claws and fangs shrank away as his body became perhaps a tenth of what it had been. A naked man huddled beside Prue in front of her sisters' wide-eyed gazes. Brendan breathed hard as his body continued to shake. He whimpered as he looked down at Prue.

Then, sensing eyes upon him and being completely confused as to what was happening and how he had come to be naked before Prue, he looked around. He remembered Cole Turner, a boyfriend to one of Prue's sisters, coming to him for help, but that was the last thing he could recall until this very moment. He pushed his shaggy, brown locks out of his face and met Cole's gaze.

Cole and Leo smiled while Phoebe's and Piper's mouths dropped open at the realization that the Werewolf was none other than Prue's current boyfriend, Doctor Brendan Richards. "It's okay," Cole assured him. "She'll be fine if you kiss her."

Brendan gazed at the man as though he'd gone nuts. "I can't kiss her! I'll hurt her!"

"A mere kiss will not harm any one," Leo advised gently.

"You don't know that! You don't know what I am! You don't know the monster I'll become if . . . if . . . "

The men continued to smile at Brendan. "Yes," Cole spoke simply to which Leo finished, "we do."

"I'll kill her!"

"No, you won't," Cole told him.

A light suddenly shone upon Leo. He smiled reassuringly at Brendan as his heart reached out to him. "You will not harm her if you kiss her this time, Brendan, but if you do not kiss her, she will die."

Brendan continued to stare at them, both aghast and in shock. Cole and Leo took turns telling the story of what had happened, and still he stared at them when they had finished. He shook his head slowly. "You've got the wrong man," he told them miserably, his voice on the edge of a whimper.

**To Be Continued . . . **


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

"Only a man who truly loved the sisters could have found them," Leo told him.

"You followed your nose throughout a terrible storm," Cole spoke gently. "You didn't even need to smell Prue's shirt. You already had her scent. It's a part of you." His mind marveled at that fact. He wished he had Piper's scent so well kept within him, but as it was, at least he had the grandest treasure of keep them all kept closely to his heart: her love and their eternal connection as soul mates!

"You found her while still in your Werewolf form," Leo continued, still glowing with a reassuring, pulsating light. "You did all you could to save her, and you never once hurt her."

Brendan gazed at them in disbelief. "In my Werewolf form?"

They nodded. "Yes, Brendan," Leo answered verbally.

"The question's simple really," Cole put in. "If you love her, kiss her. If you don't want to lose her, kiss her."

"Because if you don't," Leo finished, "you will lose her. We will all lose her."

"We're waiting on you," Phoebe spoke up. "Will you save our sister, Brendan?"

"Do you love her," Piper pressed, "enough to keep her from dying?"

"Of course I do," he whimpered, his torn emotions shining clearly in his shimmering brown eyes, "I love her more than I even ever thought I could love any one! I'm evil! I'm not supposed to be able to love!"

"But you do," Cole gently said, "just as I love Piper." He took her hand in his and squeezed it softly. Then, still watching Brendan, he lifted her hand and brushed his lips in a gentle kiss across its back.

She squeezed his hand tightly in return and whispered softly, batting away her own tears, "I love you too, Cole."

"Every living being," Leo spoke, "has a heart, and every heart is capable of loving. We're incredibly blessed to be able to find the ones we truly love, the ones who complete our souls." He took Phoebe's hand, squeezed it, and kissed it, as he had seen Cole do for Piper.

Phoebe grinned and squeezed his hand in return, whispering, "I love you."

Brendan slowly nodded. "I love her," he said, his voice no longer sounding quite so much like a whimper. "No matter what, I love her! I just don't want to hurt her!"

"You won't," the four lovers assured him together.

Brendan whimpered as he gazed down into his beloved Prue's beautiful face. She was so beautiful, so sweet, and so wonderful, and he was nothing but a lowly, filthy monster who could never deserve her! He had always believed that he would kill her if his Werewolf was to ever be around her, but yet it had been his Werewolf side who had hunted throughout the city to find her and had done just that. Without the monster that lurked within him, always far too eager to come out and kill, his beloved Prue and her sisters, who he knew meant the world to her, might well never have been found.

He whimpered again as he softly caressed her raven hair. It felt every bit as soft and luxurious as he'd always thought it would, and every inch of his body thrilled at the touch. {Down, boy,} he growled to himself, knowing that the rush of excitement and love he was feeling for this amazing woman might well reawaken his Werewolf. Just because he hadn't killed her yet didn't mean that he could trust himself around her.

He was a monster, pure and simple. He had learned his family was right the morning that he had awakened to his pet goldfish in his mouth. He was a monster who would kill any one he dared to love and destroy anything he touched, but yet he loved Prue. Could she truly love him too? How could she?

He wasn't a bad looking man, Brendan admitted silently, and she didn't know of the horrid monster within him. She only knew the man. She only saw his tender smile, his brown eyes, and his shoulder-length, brown hair that, admittedly, was far too shaggy and hinted to the beast within him. Yet Brendan knew he was handsome for girls and women alike had chased him far more than he cared to consider.

He'd never had a problem keeping them at bay, but the very first time that Prue had smiled at him, she had slipped underneath his skin. He loved her, and there was nothing he could do to stop himself from loving her. All of his efforts and all of his sessions with Ola in which he had tried to get her to find a way to keep him from loving, and thereby endangering, his marvelous Prue had been for naught. Nothing could stop the way he felt about her, and her family said that nothing could stop the curse that she had been placed underneath save a kiss from her true love.

He couldn't be her true love for to be so would mean that they deserved to be together and he could never deserve a lady as fair and wonderful as his beloved Prue. He was a monster who was not even fit to walk upon the same ground as she touched, but he loved her. One kiss from her would pour excitement and love into his soul and would reawaken his monster, but still he had to try, for if he didn't at least try, Prue might never wake up. Taking a deep breath, gathering all his courage to him, and doing his best to think only of his love for Prue, Brendan finally lowered his head and dared to touch his lips to hers.

Prue's consciousness instantly surged through her still body at the touch of her soul mate's lips upon hers. Warmth, passion, and love flooded her soul. Her eyes fluttered open and confirmed what her heart was already telling her. Brendan was kissing her at long last!

She reached up, wrapped her arms lovingly around him, and pulled him closer to her. She deepened their kiss, giving to him all the love and passion she would ever feel for him alone. Now that she had her man, she would never let him go again!

**To Be Concluded . . . **


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

That thought also circled through her sisters' minds as Piper kissed Cole and Phoebe kissed Leo; none of them ever wanted to release the Kings of their hearts and souls. Each Halliwell sister was finally with her soul mate and was granted the best reward of all in that moment and forever thereafter: the discovery and reunion with the missing parts of their souls and their true loves, each of which was so full of beauty, love, and passion that it would last for all eternity and beyond.

A howl of gladness and hope burst from Brendan's heart into his lungs and was only silenced by Prue's sweet, hot mouth covering his. She loved him! She really loved him! He could never deserve her, never dare to be with her lest he devour her, and should be ashamed of himself for condemning her to a world where she could never have a man who deserved her, could stand by her forever, and love her as she should be loved, but his heart and soul, for the first, and, he feared, last, time in his life, knew true and complete happiness for the most wonderful woman in all the world, the one woman who he could ever love and did indeed love with every shred of his being, loved him in return!

Prue paused in kissing Brendan but didn't dare lessen her hold on him. "I love you!" she whispered, her eyes glimmering with all the love and happiness that filled every inch of her heart, soul, and mind.

He shouldn't say it. He knew he shouldn't say it! And yet he could not refuse the way her beautiful, green orbs pleaded with him or deny the love that surged throughout every fiber of his being for this wonderfully charming woman alone! "I love you too!" he said, his naked body suddenly tense as the words began to escape him in a howl.

"Oh no, you don't!" Prue exclaimed, sensing his need to run and protect her from himself. She knew now, from the way he had come to her so completely naked, that Brendan was much more than a normal man, but normal men had never really excited Prue Halliwell! She was far too brave and strong a woman to be satisfied with anything less than remarkable, and Brendan was the most remarkable man she'd ever known. She tightened her grip on him, refusing to let him go.

"I'll hurt you!" he whimpered. "I'll kill you!"

"Whatever you are," she whispered, "you'll do neither!" She winked up at him. "I'll knock out first! Now come here, love!" She kissed him again, and love and passion flooded both their souls.

Brendan finally forced himself to break free from her, however, as he felt stiff fur rapidly growing across his body. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

"I'm not. Go ahead, Brendan, but I'll be here waiting. I'll always be here waiting and loving only you." She watched as he ran and kept smiling even as she marveled at the bushy tail she witnessed sprout from his bare behind. If he had that much in the back, she could just imagine what he had in the front, and it was all hers! She grinned as she hugged herself.

Then, finally, after Brendan was long gone into the depths of the forest, Prue looked back over at Piper and Cole and Phoebe and Leo and laughed out loud when she saw Phoebe kissing Piper's husband and Piper kissing Phoebe's fiance! "It's about time you guys got it all straightened out!"

They finally paused in their passionate, loving kisses at Prue's call. "You knew?" Piper asked in disbelief.

"Of course," Prue said, grinning. "I am your big sister, after all."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Phoebe asked.

"You wouldn't have believed me," Prue said with a shrug. "Some things we just have to learn for ourselves."

"Like your man is a Werewolf?" Piper teased.

Prue giggled as she got to her feet. She wrapped her arms around her own body and hugged herself again. She felt happier and lighter than she had since she'd been a schoolgirl! She couldn't remember ever being this happy, or feeling this fulfilled! "Yes," she admitted, grinning from ear to ear, "and yours is a Demon and Phoebe's is an Angel! Now you two need to get a divorce, and we need to have a triple wedding!"

Cole gazed in the direction that Brendan had ran off. "It's going to take him some time, Prue," he said gently.

"I know," Prue admitted, "but I'm going to be here waiting to catch him every time he stops running. We're all going to get our loves." Her smile was huge as she added to her sisters, "You know I think Mom was wrong after all. I think happily ever afters do exist, and we're all going to get ours."

"Yes," Piper agreed, "we are."

"Group hug!" Phoebe announced cheerily. The sisters embraced first and then pulled the guys into their hug. Smiles abounded everywhere for, at long last, they were all exactly where they were meant to be and with the ones who completed them. Every one of them, just like Prue, were happier, more fulfilled, and more at peace than they had ever been before, and the world had never been brighter!

As the family who was missing only one member hugged each other tightly, a wolf howled from somewhere deep within the forest, but he no longer sounded so lonely, miserable, or heartbroken. Indeed he sounded quite joyful. They smiled as they heard his howl foretelling of their happily ever after and knew he would come again to complete their family.

**The End**


End file.
